Photo Credit: Kerry Paradis Photography www.kerryparadisphotography.com; FB & IG @kerryparadisphotography
Bridget Moore may be fitting brides into their dream dresses, but it’s her sharp marketing mind that has K&B Bridals standing out in an industry full of competition.
The owner of three Maryland-based boutiques – in Bel Air, Hagerstown and Takoma Park – as well as a couple of related side businesses, Bridget has excelled in large part due to a marketing focus.
Not only has she trained endlessly on the subject, thinking constantly about how to get brides into the store, but she also ensures her website contains numerous options to connect at all stages of a bride’s journey and maintains a packed, purposeful events calendar to create excitement and FOMO. She even started a company to help other bridal store owners with their marketing.
“As business owners there’s a million hats we wear and we’re not going to be the expert in all of them,” Bridget says. “It’s important to find our biggest strength and passion, play into those areas of our business and look for ways to get help on the others.”
Course correction
Originally, Bridget planned to become a teacher. Then, during her senior year in high school, she watched three teachers retire and her mom exit the profession to become a principal. All advised her to change her career path.
“And I’m like, oh crap!” the now 42-year-old says.
At the time, she was loving her job at a small party-planning business, so at the last minute she changed her college major to business and her career focus to wedding planning.
Upon graduation, however, she talked herself out of it.
“I got really scared about what would happen if I ruin the biggest day of somebody’s life,” she says. “You’re 21 years old so I just kind of put it all on hold and didn’t move forward.”
Instead, she accepted a job at a bank. This provided security and ultimately introduced her to her mentor, a regular customer who owned multiple businesses. Ultimately, this man would end up becoming a silent partner so Bridget could start own business, but this wouldn’t happen for several years, following a pivotal moment:
When Bridget was 25, her dad passed away unexpectedly.
“It was just kind of that moment in life where you really realize that tomorrow isn’t promised,” she says. “So, it was a good time for me to really start deciding what I wanted to do and get serious about it.”
She began by talking to friends and mentors, who asked what happened to wedding planning.
So, she reignited that fire and began formulating a plan. While looking into internships, Bridget met a woman who’d been working in a bridal boutique that closed who said she’d love to join in. Bridget’s mentor suggested that if she really wanted to go fulltime into planning, she should make this whole unique concept of helping brides from beginning to end.
Bridget, in the process of planning her own wedding and not having great experiences doing so, loved the idea.
“Adding (the boutique) came from really looking at how we could serve brides and give them something unique and different than what was in existence,” she says. “It was really important to me to create a space where, as soon as brides walked in, they could feel at ease and we would take care of them, from beginning to end.”
Early days
The flagship boutique, originally called K&B Bridals and Event Planning, opened its doors in January 2010, in a small building on the corner of Bel Air, Maryland’s downtown main street. The main street location was important to Bridget, who loved the idea of being surrounded by cute boutiques, restaurants and passersby.
The 1,000-square-foot business featured a bridal boutique on its first floor and an event-planning office on the second. Bridget’s then-partner Kara (the “K” of K&B) focused on the boutique while Bridget tackled event-planning.
The boutique had one dressing room, pedestal and mirror. A “tiny little weird space” with a sink, perhaps formerly a closet, doubled as an office and kitchen.
Wedding dresses were capped at $1k; in addition, they carried bridesmaids, flower girls, moms, tuxes and accessories. There was an on-site seamstress, as well as the event-planning business.
“We wanted to make sure we were helping brides through the whole process to make it as easy as possible,” Bridget says. “From (day one) it was always how we served them: from beginning to end."
After about a year, Kara’s husband got a work transfer and an intern took over the event-planning side. Bridget jumped all in on bridal.
Physically, the upstart boutique grew slowly but steadily, adding an additional 200 square feet and then a second dressing room during its first four years. In 2014, the flagship store underwent its first major expansion, moving a block and a half up the street.
The new space was 6,000 square feet; in order to afford it, K&B occupied 3,500 square feet, with the additional space rented to a florist, jewelry designer and travel company.
Two years ago, K&B took over the entire space because it needed more dressing rooms and to be able to cater to more brides.
While the initial location was thriving, Bridget also eyed others. In 2020, at the encouragement of business friends who suggested she use the opportunity of COVID to see if something popped up for sale, she expanded to the second location, in Hagerstown.
“It was really awesome because I had a stylist who was super eager and loved everything to do with bridal so she ended up going out and managing and helping us launch that second location and building a team out there,” she says.
K&B had a 10-year vision, but ultimately its third location would come much faster than planned. In 2022, the state of Maryland was offering to help pay rent for anyone who occupied a space vacant since COVID. Bridget searched downtown main street areas she was eventually looking to expand into and found the “cutest little boutique” in Takoma Park.
“It wasn’t the timing we would’ve preferred but we went for it because having that grant assistance really helped us to be able to get it up and running much quicker than we would’ve been able to otherwise,” she says.
Fast-forward
Today, all three K&B Bridals locations are very similar in terms of branding, concept and experience.
“We try to be super, super approachable, super fun, same private suites for everyone, same great experience,” Bridget says.
This past year they’ve focused on the book Unreasonable Hospitality, going out of their way to get to know the customer and deliver an experience complete with unique personal touches.
Located about an hour and a half from each other, the stores attract different clientele. As such, K&B has one main vendor line that each boutique carries, then everything else is different because the brides are different. They also carry their own private exclusive bridal collection at all three stores.
“That has been super successful,” Bridget says. “Brides absolutely love that they get to customize dresses and make them really unique, and that has been huge for us.”
It’s been especially helpful at the two newer stores, Bridget says, which while not operating at the same size and scale as the flagship, are still expected to provide the same great experience.
“That can get costly to deliver on all those things but having a private label and being able to have a higher margin, that’s really helped in our success,” she says.
One element of the K&B experience brides particularly love is the Say Yes area. Favorite dress reveals happen here, with the bride head to toe in her look including accessories, special music playing and her group waiting near the mirror. The bride is walked around the corner.
‘It’s just a really special moment and we all get super emotional about it,” Bridget says.
A crucial piece of what makes K&B successful is Bridget’s intense focus on marketing.
“I think where it started was after I went through a big mastermind I learned about the importance of creating an effective sales funnel to always have leads coming into your store,” she says. “How can you constantly grab (brides’) attention so you’re front of their mind when they’re ready to work with you?”
On the website are many options to connect with the bride at different stages of her journey (i.e. giveaways, promotions, trend guides, style quizzes, etc.)
“And essentially, because they’re always running, we consistently know new brides that are looking for us,” Bridget says. “They automatically get follow-ups and we can re-target our ads to them.”
K&B is also very purposeful in its calendar, planning six months ahead and making sure there’s at least one event every month, including huge sales twice a year.
“We make a big deal about it; it’s kind of creating this FOMO,” Bridget says. “There’s constant activity and excitement, so there’s always stuff to be promoting and talking about.”
When Bridget realized how, in the first year of implementing her sales funnel, the business grew more than $150K in revenue that could be directly correlated to those leads, it spurred the idea to start a marketing company with her regional director, Kate.
The Engaged Marketing Company took root about eight years ago, with a focus on marketing for bridal shop owners. Run in conjuction with K&B, it assists owners with all parts of marketing minus social media to help boost store traffic.
This year, for example, they launched SEO packages because Bridget realized that, when K&B’s ads dipped in performance last year, a shift in focus back to SEO really spiked traffic again.
“We really look at the things that have helped us be super successful and try to constantly innovate in that way,” Bridget says. “Every shop needs that lead magnet out there that’s always getting them connected with brides in the beginning and helping to nurture and get them in the door.”
Top-notch team
Make no mistake about it: Juggling three locations is no easy feat.
“It’s essential to have a team to keep everything running smoothly,” Bridget says. “Amazing people who love what they do is the secret to my success.”
Each store has a manager overseeing it, as well as a manager in training below them. Regional marketing director Kate splits her time between overseeing the three stores and marketing.
Bridget meets weekly with her leadership team, to check in on goals, challenges and quarterly projects. Her husband, Chris, a former general manager who now works full-time in the business as its CFO, attends as well.
“It allows me to keep my pulse on everything that’s happening and that’s the number-one super important thing,” she says.
Bridget visits each location monthly, spending the bulk of her time at her home office or the flagship store since it’s 10 minutes from her house. It’s a delicate balance between the businesses, but she prioritizes being present for big sales and events, trainings, team-building activities and rewards.
While her staff is by far her biggest asset, finding good ones remains a challenge.
Despite hiring nights, Indeed and social posts, the two newest boutiques are operating with “small but mighty” crews. Her flagship store went through a staffing reset last June.
“I feel like I’m hanging on a thread some days with staffing,” she says. “It’s like finding a needle in a haystack to find good employees right now.”
Once they’re hired, however, one principle stressed from the beginning is customer avatars. Each store has 3-4 charactures of brides who shop there. They’re named and discussed regularly, so when a stylist is told, “this bride is a Sarah” or “Oh, here’s Emily”, she’s going to already know a little bit about who that bride is as a person and the types of dresses most likely to work for her.
“I tell them don’t live only in this box but it gives them a good idea of who it is they’re about to see and what she’ll be looking for,” Bridget says. “And it helps them to be able to relate to her.”
Another benefit of the avatars is they help connect stylists to the marketing side.
“Instead of feeling so marketing does this, I do that, we try to make it: we’re a small but mighty business and we all kind of juggle everything,” she says.
For example, her team does the store’s social media. There’s a position stylists can apply for, which gives them a pay bump. They remain a stylist first but while on shift their responsibility is to gather content. The team then works together to create it.
And Bridget loves incentivizing.
When stylists are hired, they’re given a road map that clearly articulates a path forward, from training to master stylist, as motivation.
New stylists are usually on the floor within three weeks, followed by constant and ongoing team training.
There are monthly and individual goals, as well as corresponding celebrations when they’re met. There are also monthly spiffs and a big team reward – perhaps a trip or huge weekend thing – if they hit their annual stretch goal.
“I really just love to do the rewards,” Bridget says. “It’s a fun way to encourage staff and help them feel appreciated.”
Embracing modern shifts
As time goes on, K&B continues to change with the times.
“I think another thing that has made us super successful is the ability to continually innovate and go where the customer needs,” Bridget says. “If something used to be working but we’re clearly not seeing those same results anymore we’ve gotta change the offer, ad, program – whatever it is.”
For K&B, bridesmaids have been on a steady decline. As such, they’re looking at moving over to the new Justin Alexander partnership program to remove most of the labor.
Moms, on the other hand, have been increasing so they’re focusing more on it. They host a moms’ night event 2-3 times a year, complete with outside vendors, refreshments, education and a special incentive for setting up an appointment that night.
“That’s been hugely successful so we’re really leaning more into that,” Bridget says.
While going down a little, tuxes have remained fairly steady. They just started working with the new Gen Tux partnership program so, while they still have tuxes in store and do styling, everything for the order goes through Gen Tux.
“It makes it super easy for them and has been a big shift for us this year,” Bridget says.
As for prom, the store they bought at Hagerstown had it so they’ve kept it. However, that’s about to change.
“It’s just not our passion so I think we’re probably done with it,” Bridget says.
They carry accessories but offer no online sales, mostly to encourage being in a boutique and avoid price-shopping situations. They request appointments but accept walk-ins when possible. And while they offer upgraded appointments for a fee, standard appointments are free.
“I want everyone to be able to come in and have the K&B experience so I don’t charge them for it,” Bridget says.
Finally, a third business, Bridal Alterations of Maryland, open in August to fill a growing need.
Originally, K&B had alterations contractors when it opened but things got chaotic in-store, so Bridget moved them to a list that she handed the bride. But more recently, in part due to the post-COVID wedding boom, brides have been asking a lot about alterations so it was time to re-evaluate again.
“We’re just looking at how do we meet the customer where they are and thought alterations would be a great way,” Bridget says. “Even if brides didn’t buy from us, they could still come back and get their alterations here.”
The Hagerstown location had lots of extra space – complete with its own doorway! – so Bridget threw up a wall and, in August, Bridal Alterations of Maryland officially opened.
Today, it has a manager and two seamstresses. Any bride who buys a dress from K&B is informed about the partnership with Bridal Alterations of Maryland. They aren’t charged the fitting fee and get a small discount. The minute brides are done signing their dress contract they walk next door and put their alterations appointment on the books. At the other two locations, they book through a link.
“It’s been a huge success,” Bridget says. “A lot of brides choose to drive the hour and half out there because they feel like they can trust our recommendation.”
Forging ahead
Forever the marketing maven, Bridget is constantly adapting and innovating, looking for ways to expand her business and meet customers where they’re at.
Her eventual goal is to have five stores, with the next big move being an off-the-rack boutique within the next year or so, as well as potentially another location for the alterations business, closer to the flagship store. They might also open another location in Texas, as one of Bridget’s managers has expressed a desire to move there and wants to remain part of K&B.
“Something you maybe don’t think about when you start all of this is the ability to impact so many peoples’ lives who aren’t the bride,” Bridget says.
While she’d never wanted more than one location originally, over time, when she noticed so many employees loving their career, “that was super empowering and made me want to expand because I realized we can create jobs to help so many women get to do something they love,” she says.
Additionally, she and Kate have dreams of the marketing company growing and helping a lot more stores. The wedding-planning business is also still around, although Bridget is now more of a silent partner.
Regardless of what path she takes, one thing will remain true: decisions will be made based on what’s best for the bride.
“We love our brides, but the brides are going to change and might want something different, so how do we keep serving them and make sure they have a great experience?” she says.
After all, that’s what Bridget started her business for: to make sure the bride has no stress.
“This should be the fun, exciting highlight among all the other stressful things,” she says. “I don’t think there are many places we could feel as rewarded as we do creating such a special moment for brides every day. That’s the best part!”
